deeply grieved on account of the reckless impiety of Ham, as well as offended on his own personal behalf; for, on calling this son before him, Noah said, by the spirit of Prophesy, words too terrible to fall from a parents lips, without a reason entirely resistless. The words which he pronounced, and was moved thereto by the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Ghost, contained in them a curse, a dreadful curse, which not only covered the person and fortunes of Ham, but that of his whole posterity also, to the very end of time, for aught that appears to the contrary.
For an account of this appalling anathema, see Genesis ix, 24-27, as follows: "And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him: and he said, cursed be Canaan (Ham); a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. And he said, blessed be the Lord God of Shem; and Canaan (Ham) shall be his servant. God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan (Ham) shall be his servant."
But lest the reader should become perplexed, respecting the application of this anathema, on account of the text above referred to being, in the English, "cursed Canaan," instead of "cursed Ham," as it should have been translated; we state that the Arabic copy of the book of Genesis, which is a language of equal authority with the Hebrew, and originally the very same, reads "cursed Ham," the father of Canaan, a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.
In this sense it has ever been understood by all
